Deped urged to clean ranks after teacher’s arrest over drugs

Public school teacher Reynante Aliñabon (right) and four other men who were arrested in a buy-bust operation in Badian town are investigated at the Cebu Provincial Police Office headquarters. (CDN PHOTO/APPLE MAE M. TA-AS)

The Department of Education (DepEd) was asked to check its ranks for drug users following the arrest of an acting supervisor of a public elementary school in Badian town, southwest Cebu.

“I think it would be  proper for DepEd to conduct its own investigation and to take action to determine if there are  other teachers  engaged in illegal drugs,” said Supt. Rodolfo Albotra Jr., chief of the Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB) of the Cebu provincial police.

PIB operatives on Tuesday arrested Reynante Aliñabon, acting supervisor of Santicon Elementary School, and three other men.  They were caught using shabu in an alleged drug den in barangay Poblacion.

The teacher denied being a drug user but refused to say what he was doing in the house of James Pondoc, who was the target of a buy-bust operation.

“I have nothing to say. I will  defend myself in court,” he said.

Aliñabon has been a public school teacher for 13 years.

“They’re supposed to be role models. The same case applies to us,  we are law enforcers not law breakers. We should see to it that personnel are clean from the use of illegal drugs,” said Chief Supt. Prudencio Bañas, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas.

Stringent measures will be taken in hiring new teachers, said Dr. Arden Monisit, Cebu provincial schools division superintendent.

“Even if there’s a huge number of applicants, we will exert more effort to interview each applicant to ensure that newly hired teachers are the best choice,” he said.

Monisit said Aliñabon’s arrest should serve as a warning to other teachers.

However, he said this was an  isolated case.

“The incident has no big effect. I checked  our legal office. This case is a first,” he said.

“I think this is an isolated case. I believe this was s also inevitable considering that we have about  20,000 teachers in  Cebu province. It cannoted be avoided that there will be cases like this,” said Monisit.